Speaking at the Primary Care Live conference in Docklands, East London, last week Dr Nigel Watson, who is also Wessex LMC chief executive, warned that despite pay freezes in 2006/7 and 2007/8, not all practices are controlling expenditure efficiently.
Medical accountants have forecast a drop in income of between 5 and 7 per cent for such practices, Dr Watson said.
‘There has been little increase in the global sum for the last four years. More money is needed in the global sum, not in the quality framework.
‘The DoH is also making it harder to achieve quality framework targets, and wants to remove some of the administration side of it, like management.’
But Dr Watson said it was professional management that was most needed to control spending.
‘The best practices now have to have really great, professional practice managers, where we used to just have senior receptionists.’
Staff budget, locum cover, stationery and building costs were the areas where expenditure and efficiency could vary unpredictably, he said.
‘It’s not one thing in particular. Very efficient practices will maintain their incomes because they carefully measure their spending against their income.’
Dr Watson also warned that badly organised PCTs could affect payments coming into a practice.
He told his audience including GPs: ‘You must ensure you are actually paid for what you do. We have seen examples of practices getting paid for things they didn’t do, so there must be many instances where they are under-paid too. Practices should be checking every statement.
‘The present system of payment is not simpler than the big Red Book. Some people struggle to understand the PMS statements.’
tom.ireland@haymarket.com
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